A Flowergirl's Valentine
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: As a flowergirl with her own shop, Aerith tended to dislike Valentine's Day and all the chaos that came with that special day. However, her view seems to change drastically when she meets the tall, overly excited and handsome stranger in the moogle café that she visited every morning...


**A/N: A Valentine's Day Themed AU drabble, inspired by the movie Meet Joe Black. Not that I can recall how that scene went exactly, only that it took place in some coffee shop. :P Enjoy! :)  
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 _~ He was most definitely not lacking on the looks department, but that did not eliminate the possibility of him being a total creep. ~_

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Aerith felt anything but great about today and that wasn't only because she'd barely slept last night. Granted, it was Valentine's Day, so one would think that that was a good reason to be in a better mood. However, during this time of the year things were always extra hectic for the flower girl. No, she did not have a boyfriend, but as a flowergirl, she was far too busy handing out flowers all day to worry about that. Before that, however, she needed to have a double espresso, otherwise she wouldn't be able to survive this day.

Even the moogle café that she frequented seemed to be more crowded than usual. She had to wait for more than ten minutes before she could order her favorite drink. Her favorite table at the far corner and next to the window was already taken too, so she opted to sit on the only empty barstool she could spot.

Aerith took a small sip from her espresso, noticing that it tasted sweeter than usual. As her emerald-green eyes travelled across the room randomly, taking in the excessively pink decorations, she could suddenly feel a pair of eyes resting on her form. With a slight frown, the brunette flowergirl started studying the people sitting in the room. Soon enough, she realized that the pair of eyes (mezmerizing, electric-blue ones that is) belonged to a tall-looking, dark-haired man she had never seen before. He was sitting on a barstool not too far away from her.

He was most definitely not lacking on the looks department, but that did not eliminate the possibility of him being a total creep. It was usually the handsome ones one had to look out for, anyway. If only she had known this before the whole Cloud-incident...

Aerith raised her eyebrows questioningly at him, to which the man replied with a dazzling smile. Automatically, her heart skipped a beat at the sight.

 _Oh no..._

"Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering what drink you ordered," the man now said, his huge smile never disappearing. "Not to sound like a total creep, but I'm new around here and I'm not sure what to try first. The possibilities are endless it seems!"

Aerith nodded understandably. "I'm having a double espresso. It's pretty strong, but it wakes me up completely."

He looks like an overly excited puppy, she thought to herself. In some way it was kind of... _cute_. Not that she was going to tell him that.

"Aha..." He nodded thoughtfully, before motioning for the nearest waitress to give him exactly what Aerith ordered. While waiting for his cup of coffee, he turned back to Aerith again. "I'm Zack by the way. Zack Fair."

"Aerith Gainsborough," the brunette replied with a small smile, shaking the hand that the stranger extended towards her.

"Aerith," he repeated to himself, as if he could taste the name. "That is a beautiful name!"

"...Thank you," the brunette replied politely.

It wasn't like she did not want to talk to this Zack, but she had never seen him here before and she felt like she should spare her energy today. Valentine's Day seemed to turn the nicest people into a monsters.

"So what do you do for a living?" When Aerith seemed to hesitate to answer this time, he hastened to add, "Pure out of curiosity. I'm a doctor. My shift starts in fifteen minutes actually."

"I'm a flowergirl." Realizing that that probably sounded rather dull compared to what he was doing, she added, "I have my own shop, so I have a busy day ahead of me, handing out flowers and arranging bouquets for our customers and such."

He nodded at that. "That sounds really interesting! I wanted to have an own shop when I was younger. A shop that had the best action figures in the whole word!"

She had to laugh at that. "Somehow, that seems like something you'd want."

It turned out that she and Zack had more things in common than Aerith suspected. In fact, she started to like him more and more as time passed. It could be because he was so open and honest about his life.

"It was really nice meeting you, Aerith. I hope we'll meet again sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow, same time same place?"

Her heart skipped a beat again, but she forced herself to smile at him and say, "Yes, that would be nice."

"Great! Gotta go now, I'm already late. Last time a patient got her shots too late, she gave me this." He pointed to the faint scar on his cheek (which she had not noticed before).

Aerith gasped softly. "Really?"

"Nah, just kidding," he replied with a wink. "But that's a story for another time."

Zack grabbed his coat and bade Aerith a last farewell before heading outside.

She watched his retreating back, still marveled at how spiky his hair was. The day that had started so horribly gloomy for Aerith, suddenly didn't feel half as bad...

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 **A/N: Amount of stories to publish before I leave this site: 21 one-shots.  
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